Crisp still out, but A’s sail into White Sox series on serious pitching roll

Not much news out of A’s manager Bob Melvin’s pregame session with reporters, so we’ll bounce around the map a bit:

**Center fielder Coco Crisp (neck strain) will miss his fifth consecutive start tonight against the White Sox. Crisp took some swings in the batting cage, but Melvin didn’t sound confident about Crisp rejoining the lineup soon.

“It really is a day-to-day proposition,” Melvin said. “And this is one I don’t have a lot of experience with, as far as that whiplash thing. It bothers him a little more turning his head hitting left-handed.”

**The A’s enter this series on another tidy run of strong pitching. They’ve allowed only four runs in their past four games (37 innings, 0.97 ERA), lowering the team ERA to 2.91 for the season.

That not only leads the American League, it’s more than a half-run better than the next-best team (Detroit at 3.43). That’s a ridiculously wide margin.

**Left-hander Drew Pomeranz makes his second A’s start Tuesday night, after his impressive debut as a starter last Wednesday against Seattle. Pomeranz threw five shutout innings in Oakland’s 2-0 victory over the Mariners.

Drew Pomeranz, sensational in his first start last week, will face the White Sox on Tuesday night. (AP photo)

That earned him a spot in the rotation, at least for now — the A’s sent Dan Straily to the minors to clear space for Pomeranz. He’s clearly not disappointed to get the chance at the spacious Coliseum, after previously pitching in the launching pad known as Coors Field in Denver.

“It’s a little different,” Pomeranz said of the ballpark swap.

Asked if the Coliseum allows him to challenge hitters more often, he replied, “There’s that, and there’s also all this foul territory. You don’t realize how much it comes into play until you pitch here. Balls that are usually 10 rows up are still on the grass — they’re not even close to going into the stands.”

Pomeranz threw only 68 pitches last time out, but Melvin seems ready to give him more rope Tuesday night.

“We’ll kick him up a few more pitches,” Melvin said. “We’ve seen a pretty consistent performance from him since spring training. Pitching in a long-relief role can be difficult … We couldn’t really have expected more out of his first start.”

**Triple-A Sacramento activated catcher Stephen Vogt from the disabled list. Vogt hasn’t played since April 8 because of a pulled oblique muscle.

Vogt faces a logjam ahead of him at catcher, given the hot starts of Derek Norris and John Jaso. That might give the A’s some flexibility if they decide they need to trade for starting pitching at some point this season; they obviously wouldn’t consider dealing Jaso, for example, unless Vogt was healthy and available to back up Norris.

**Sonny Gray’s sparkling shutout April 28 against Texas became even better two weeks after the fact.

Major League Baseball made a scoring change from that game, turning Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos’ sixth-inning single into an error on A’s shortstop Jed Lowrie. That means Gray threw a two-hit shutout, not a three-hit shutout.